COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery reports that Kyle Jerome Anderson, 33, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty Monday (Sept. 10) to possession with the intent to distribute heroin, aggravated criminal damage to property, attempted distribution of heroin, obstruction of justice, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

District Judge Peter Garcia sentenced Anderson as a multiple offender to a total of 20 years in prison.

Anderson was identified as a suspect during an undercover investigation by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Task Force. As officers attempted to arrest him at a Slidell restaurant, Anderson tried to flee from the parking lot in a car at a high rate of speed, striking an unmarked police car so hard that the airbags deployed. The collision disabled both vehicles, and Anderson then fled through the parking lot with officers in pursuit. Anderson ignored officers’ verbal commands for him to stop, leapt into a nearby canal, and soon afterwards yelled for help, saying he could not swim. He was assisted out of the water and arrested.

A woman who identified herself as his girlfriend also was arrested. Officers found a semi-automatic handgun and a theft alarm deactivation device in her purse. Officers also found two grams of heroin, another semiautomatic handgun, and a digital scale inside the car and a discarded baggie with heroin residue on the ground in the area where Anderson fled. Further investigation also uncovered videos and photos of Anderson, wearing body armor and posing with firearms and large sums of money with drug paraphernalia in the background.